Monday, February 27, 2012

Protagonists and Antagonists in Glass Menagerie

"Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's crippled and has no job!" p.1288

In looking at the plot of the story is hard to clearly define an antagonist in the story. The four main characters all seem like good people with flaws that come out throughout the story. Through the eyes of the memory of Tom though, I would have to define his mother Amanda as the antagonist. From Tom's memory, she is always badgering him like the quote above and yelling at him. Aside from the portrayal of Tom's memory, I think she is just trying to watch out for him to make sure he doesn't become an alcoholic traveling man like his father. Without the bias of Tom's memory, Tom could be seen as an antagonist due to him leaving his family. Defining a protagonist is just as hard. The reader could sympathize with Tom due to him carrying the family workload or Laura for her shortcomings, but neither is fighting for good like a protagonist.

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